Previous Studies Concerning Syrian refugees in Jordan

The Syrian conflict is considered the largest refugees crisis in today’s world, which became a global issue after the massive waves of Syrian refugees have reached so many countries.

With the continuity of this conflict in its tenth year, many studies have paid attention to the Syrian refugees’ status in Jordan, as a neighbouring country that received a high share.

These studies varied in topics as researchers have found the potential to write about almost all related matters such as health, safety, host communities, education and employment.

Therefore, with the availability of plenty addition of studies that have focused on Syrian refugees’ employability, it was difficult to include them all. Thus, this section focuses on the main ideas that were pointed out by many previous studies, including the studies that have been prepared by international organisations such as the International Labour Organisation ILO, UNHCR and the EU.

Challenges in Accessing the Job Market

Many studies that have been previously published about Syrian refugees’ employability in Jordan have focused on the challenges in accessing the job market. However, the status of accessing the job market by the Syrian refugees changed as of 2016, since Jordan has agreed on improving the living conditions for Syrian refugees in Jordan, which includes easing the job access of these refugees by creating 200,000 work opportunities for Syrian refugees. This was granted in return for other benefits that were stated in the Jordan Compact agreement, which will be explained in details in a separate point (European Commission, 2017).

Therefore, most of the studies agreed on the following challenges:

- Access to the job market is limited to opened jobs list:

Despite that the Jordanian government has made an effort to ensure the participation of Syrian refugees in the job market, as will be explained later. The Refugees International’s study concluded that the access of Syrian refugees to work opportunities remained restricted, as long as the MOL keeps closing many professions to non-Jordanians. The study also explained that the current legislations limit those with qualifications and expertise from work opportunities in the closed sectors, while increasing the competition among refugees from all nationalities along with other non-citizen workers for limited unskilled opportunities (Leghtas, 2018).

- Low skilled jobs and skills mismatch:

As a sequence of the previous point, concerning the access to limited opened jobs. A study that was conducted by the European Commission, stated that due to, 1) the limitations the

Jordanian MOL has added on Syrian refugees access to the job market, 2) the low level of educational achievements of Syrian refugees in the past years, the competition on low-skilled jobs has increased. This was also justified as the Syrian refugee youths have mostly skipped tertiary education in preference to work, because of the urgent need for income.

Therefore, the study shows that they were more likely to accept harsh conditions, low-paid and unskilled jobs as a result of social tensions (Errighi & Griesse, 2016).

- Working in the informal sector:

Access to informal work has increased among Syrian refugees as well as other refugees, due to many reasons, the field report of Refugees International organisation sees that one of the main reasons was that those refugees with qualifications and expertise of professions that are listed in closed sectors, in many cases work informally (Leghtas, 2018). This was also observed by the WANA institution’s study, as these professions are entitled to higher salaries than those in the opened sectors, which are usually unskilled (Dryden, 2018). The Refugees International’s study also explained that the limited available job opportunities through the formal market and the increased competition pushed many of the Syrian refugees to join the informal market. However, the study also indicated that those who didn’t join the informal market, despite the need, fear of being deported back to Syria, being detained or sent to a refugee camp (Leghtas, 2018). Moreover, another study by Jordan INGO Forum sees the preference of not losing humanitarian aids given by international and UN agencies, was a motive for some Syrian refugees, who preferred to work informally, as these aids shall be suspended in case of employment (Jordan INGO Forum, 2018).

Moreover, it is believed that the percentage of informal employment among Syrian refugees has reached 52%, which may mean losing control over low wages, written contracts in addition to harsh and difficult working conditions, leaving room for potential abuse to occur (ILO and FAFO, 2020).

- Participation of Women in the Labour Market:

The participation of Syrian women in the Jordanian labour market was criticised in many studies that referred to the challenges. According to a study conducted by WANA institute, the Syrian women participation rate in the formal job market in Jordan was only 4%

between January 2016 and May 2018, this was concluded from the issued work permits for Syrians (Dryden, 2018). Refugees International’s study justifies that Jordan is considered one of the lowest-ranked countries in the world in terms of women participation in the labour market, which was also mentioned by WANA’s study. The number of Syrian women who joins the Jordanian labour market remains low. While the study also criticised that the government policies only allowed Jordanian citizens to register home-based businesses, which could be an income solution for many Syrian women (Leghtas, 2018).

However, according to the Arab Renaissance for Democracy & Development, this regulation was updated to include Syrians only by the end of 2018 (ARDD, 2019).

- Transportation Challenge:

Many studies have referred to this challenge, as a report published by the Danish Refugee Council DRC in 2017, highlighted that the transportation cost refugees need to pay to reach their work locations is a challenge that limiting their mobility. As not all employers provide transportation allowances or facilities, refugees who live in remote areas, camps or other cities, are unable to afford daily transportation cost, with their low income (DRC, 2017).

While the ILO and FAFO study sees that the cost of transportation can reach in some cases 10 – 29% of refugees’ income on monthly basis (Stave & Hillesund, 2015).

Moreover, the amount of time that some refugees need to spend on travelling from their homes which are located in remote areas, camps or other cities to their work locations through indirect routes, is also a challenging factor (Dryden, 2018).

Working Conditions:

One of the main purposes of this dissertation is to examine the working conditions of all refugees in Jordan. However, previous studies focused on the working conditions of Syrian refugees in Jordan for the past few years. Therefore, they were mostly focusing on the following conditions:

- Long working hours:

The working hours were highlighted in many studies, as in Stave and Hillesund’s study, which compares general conditions between a group of Syrian refugee workers and another group of Jordanian workers. The study shows that Syrian refugees lean towards accepting

longer working hours than Jordanian workers, while many of the Syrian participants confirmed working six or seven days a week. The study also shows that Syrian refugees who live outside the camps have longer working hours than those inside the camps, as 56%

of the respondents worked for more than 48 hours per week (the maximum working hours as regulated by the Jordanian law), which in some cases reach up to 80 hours per week.

While the share of those inside the camps and exceed the regulated working hours was 36% (Stave & Hillesund, 2015).

- Low wages/ salaries:

Stave’s and Hillesund’s study, showed that Syrian refugee workers are paid less than Jordanian workers, regardless of their years of experience. This can be due to either as explained in the study as the Syrian refugees are believed to be more able to work for low wages and under difficult conditions (Stave & Hillesund, 2015). Or as a result of the difference in the minimum wage line, the minimum wage of non-Jordanians including refugees is JOD150 (USD 212), and for Jordanian workers is JOD220 (USD 310). Which in some cases, has made many employers prefer to hire non-Jordanians, especially Syrians (DTDA & DI, 2020).

Stave’s and Hillesund’s study also explained other financial related concerns, such as the social security insurance and other benefits, which Syrian refugees lose when they work informally, as well as other benefits such as bonuses (Stave & Hillesund, 2015).

Working Opportunities

As previously explained, Syrian refugees are limited to work in open sectors, which are limited to agriculture, construction, manufacturing, and services sectors. a report conducted by WANA Institute projected an increase in jobs creation in the Jordanian market, which shall lead to an increase in the opened sectors for refugees, in case additional investments have been spent in Jordan. Accordingly, the report suggested four scenarios for the increase of job creation in the Jordanian market, which shall lead to more jobs for Syrian refugees.

Therefore, the study only showed the estimations for the opened sectors towards refugees’

access. The forecasted increase of created jobs was based on Okun’s law, by estimating

that for every 2% growth in a country’s GDP, the unemployment rate decreases by 1%.

Accordingly, in each scenario, a prediction was made on new investments which would result in creating a fixed proportion for the selected sectors, while 2014 actual data were used as a baseline (Alhajahmad et al., 2018).

- Scenario one: no additional investment is added, while the GDP growth continues at a modest rate, leading to a slight increase in jobs over the years.

- Scenario two: estimates that an investment of JOD1.5 billion (USD2.12B) is added to the Jordanian economy leading to a growth rate in the GDP by 11%.

- Scenario three: estimates that an investment of JOD2.5 billion (USD3.52B) is added to the Jordanian economy leading to a growth rate in the GDP by 17.8%.

- Scenario four: estimates that an investment of JOD3.5 billion (USD5B) is added to the Jordanian economy leading to a growth rate in the GDP by 25%.

Table 6 shows the projected numbers of the created jobs in each scenario for the years 2020 and 2025.

Table 6. Projected created jobs in the Jordanian market for the years 2020 and 2025, with additional investments scenarios.

Scenario One Scenario Two Scenario Three Scenario Four

Sector Jobs Services 74,745 149,490 105,650 180,372 126,253 200,960 146,857 221,548 Total in Selected

Sectors

93,692 187,384 132,431 226,094 158,257 251,901 184,082 277,708 Sources: WANA (Alhajahmad et al., 2018, pp.25-28)

Moreover, according to a study by the ILO, it’s common for Syrian refugees to work in the closed sectors, using work permits of different jobs that indicate that they work for another profession from the opened sectors, such as agricultural worker (ILO, 2017).

Syrian Investors

As a result of the Syrian conflict, Jordan did not only receive refugees who were looking for shelter and work opportunities but also Syrian businessmen and investors, who have

moved their businesses to Jordan, for a more secure and stable economy. According to a study conducted by WANA institute in 2019, the Jordanian Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation stated that the Syrian investments in Jordan were up to JOD42 million (approx.. $59 million), and JOD49 million (approx.. $69 m.), in 2012 and 2013 respectively. These investments included factories in many fields such as food, furniture, clothes and others that were moved to the industrial areas in Jordan. In addition to significant participation of Syrian investors in the commercial sector, mainly in restaurants and cafes. As a result, these investments not only added a contribution to the country’s GDP but also created many job opportunities for both Syrian refugees and Jordanians (Ajluni, 2019). Moreover, Syrian investors were allowed to hire Syrian workers up to 30%

in big cities, and 60% in remote areas and industrial cities (ILO Regional Office for Arab States, 2015).

Jordan Compact

A partnership agreement was signed in London, in February 2016 between the European Union and Jordan. In which, Jordan has agreed on improving the living conditions for both Syrian refugees in Jordan and vulnerable host communities. In return, the European Union granted financial assistance in the form of grants, loans and other trade agreements through three years, from 2016 -2018. Therefore, Jordan had agreed to secure 200,000 jobs for Syrian refugees, as part of its role in the agreement (European Commission, 2017). In August 2020, the number of issued work permits for Syrian refugees has reached 200,180 permits since 2016 (UNHCR, 2020e). This will be explained later in point 5.2.1.